Friday, January 13, 2017

Sporting Add to Midfield Depth by Signing Ilie Sanchez

So far this offseason, Sporting KC has spent a lot of their resources bringing in attacking players for their front three positions, adding five players (of their eight signings) along the front line. One area that the team had yet to address was the midfield, where the team had grown quite thin in the offseason with the retirement of Paulo Nagamura. KC had really only five midfielders on the roster with Benny Feilhaber, Roger Espinoza, Soni Mustivar, Benji Joya, and Lawrence Olum (who also doubled for center back duty). Sporting KC addressed the midfield today though, signing defensive midfielder, Ilie Sanchez to a two year deal with an option for a third year.

Sanchez becomes the third player in the last five years to join Sporting KC after having spent time playing for Barcelona B, joining the likes of Oriol Rosell and Jordi Quintilla. Sanchez though played quite a bit more during his time there and also captained the side for a period of time. After playing with the club from 2009 to 2014, Sanchez moved to Germany where he joined up with 1860 Munich and appeared in 24 games in the 2014-2015 season in the German second division. In 2015-2016 though, Sanchez went on loan to Spanish side Elche and upon his return to Germany negotiated the release from his contract with Munich.

The 26 year old will immediately come in and provide depth for KC in the defensive midfield position and could very well challenge Soni Mustivar for the starting spot depending on how preseason goes.

Overall the offseason continues to work out well for KC, they're addressing some of their biggest needs from the 2016 season and while they're not flashy signings they do fill specific needs. My only big concern at this time is KC's need for a second goal scorer after Dom Dwyer. Graham Zusi's career high is six, and the presumed starter on the opposite wing, Gerso Fernandes has never been a goal scorer in his career, so questions about getting support for Dwyer still remain.